The principle of the single pole DC generator/motor was discovered by Michael Faraday, over 150 years ago. Faraday found that when an electrically conductive disc was rotated axially, with its edge rotating between the stationary poles of, e.g., a horseshoe magnet, a potential difference was created between the shaft and the disc. Faraday showed that it did not matter whether the magnet itself was stationary or rotating with respect to the disc. As long as the conductive disc was moving in the magnetic field, a potential was created. Faraday further determined that rotating the magnet with respect to the conducting disc stationary did not produce an induced potential. From this series of observations, Faraday concluded that a magnetic field was stationary relative to the axial rotation of both the magnet and the conducting disc. The magnetic field was, therefor, not rigidly associated with the magnet that served to induce the field.
Since the work of Faraday, many experimenters have tried to make a single pole direct current device that could be used for practical applications such as the Fawley Superconducting Homopolar Motor. The Fawley Superconducting Homopolar Motor was built in 1969 by the International Research And Development Corporation of England. The motor operated as a 3250 h.p. motor at 200 r.p.m. The motor was designed to operate a water cooling pump for a 500 M.W., Turbo generator, at the C.E.G.B., power station at Fawley England. This work is described by A.D. Appleton in 61 Proceedings of the IEEE, p. 106, January, 1973. Single pole or homopolar DC or AC devices produce low voltage and high current. Resistance levels that are acceptable for other devices are too high for a single pole DC or AC devices. Thus, most of the theoretically available power is consumed in the machine's own electrical circuitry.